At a campaign rally in South Carolina on Monday night, the U.S. president complained again about Canada’s trade practices and jabbed again at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been subjected to repeated attacks from the White House over the last month. He also repeated his threat of tariffs on Canadian-made cars, framing it as possible retaliation for Canada’s dairy tariffs.

Trump’s speech was rambling even by his own rally standards: it involved extended criticism of three late-night television hosts, musings on his hair, an unprompted denial that his wife recently had a facelift, an accusation that the news media is “the enemy of the people,” numerous boasts and false claims, and another recounting of his triumphant performance in the 2016 campaign.

When Trump eventually got around to Canada, he began by saying “Canada” in a loud, exaggerated voice.

Elsewhere in the speech, Trump referred deferentially to North Korea’s dictator as “Chairman Kim.” Trump aides say the president intentionally refers to Trudeau by his first name “to be diminishing,” Maggie Haberman, a prominent New York Times reporter, wrote on Twitter.

Trump then launched into his familiar complaint about the post-G7 news conference in which Trudeau repeated his measured criticism of Trump’s new tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. Trump baselessly suggested again that Trudeau gave the news conference because he thought Trump could not watch it while stuck on a long Air Force One flight to Asia.

“I get onto Air Force One. And he doesn’t understand that Air Force One has 22 televisions. So I come on — they have televisions in closets, they have televisions in areas that no place has — unlimited budget, Air Force One, right,” he said.

“So I get onto the plane and I see Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, saying, ‘Canada will not be bullied by the United States.’ I said, ‘What are we doing here? The fact is that Canada has a 275 per cent tariff on dairy products.’ Little thing called dairy product. Their lumber is a disaster with us. I say, ‘Why aren’t we using our own lumber?’”

“Energy is a disaster,” Trump continued without elaboration. The White House has never explained the president’s occasional vague complaints about the energy relationship.

Trump then adopted a mocking voice to dismiss Trudeau’s argument that Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs, officially imposed on “national security” grounds, are an insult to a close military ally like Canada.

“I see Justin said, ‘We fought World War I together, we fought World War II together.’ That’s true. We love Canada. But Canada’s charging almost 300 per cent tariff on dairy products and many other things,” he said.

Canada’s supply management system for dairy involves a quota on foreign imports and then high tariffs above the quota levels. The Canadian dairy industry argues that U.S. dairy farmers also get signifaicnt help from governments in the form of subsidies.

Trump continued: “I said, look, if you want to do that, we’re going to put a little tariff on your cars.”

Trudeau and the global auto industry, including U.S. automakers, have responded with alarm to Trump’s suggestion of car tariffs, which would also be officially imposed on “national security” grounds despite Trump’s statements.

TD Economics forecast 160,000 job losses in Canada, the vast majority in Ontario, if such tariffs were imposed. The tariffs would also hurt American automakers. Trudeau pointed to this potential U.S. damage when discussing the tariffs last week.

“I have to continue to believe that leaders will function in the interests of their own country,” Trudeau said. “And I have a hard time accepting that any leader might do the kind of damage to his own auto industry that would happen if you were to bring in such a tariff on Canadian auto manufacturers given the integration of the parts supply chains, of the auto supply chains through the Canada-U.S. border.”

Daniel Dale is the Star’s Washington bureau chief. He covers U.S. politics and current affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @ddale8

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